Opinion - Leader Page Articles   

Rain-makers and drizzle-makers

BEHIND THE generals and field-commanders was a band of "rain-makers," men and (sometimes) women who seek to manipulate the public mood and opinion in favour of their political party.

It was the success of the BJP's "rain-makers" — primarily Pramod Mahajan and Arun Jaitley — in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh last year that prompted the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, to go in for early Lok Sabha elections. The idea was that these and other artificial rain-makers would so swiftly and so comprehensively razzle-dazzle the electorate with their witchcraft that by the time the Opposition parties got their act together, the battle would be over and won.

Firstly, these artificial rain-makers embarked on a "Shining India" publicity blitzkrieg and then mounted a high-tech campaign. Mr. Mahajan's residence at 7, Safdarjung Road, was converted — and flaunted — as the "nerve-centre" of a highly sophisticated war-room, directing the great electoral battle.

Armed with a battery of private psephologists, opinion-surveyors and a hefty war-chest, the rain-makers engaged the "enemy" in a massive psychological battle of nerves. Carried away by their own verbosity, the BJP's rain-makers even used concepts like "carpet-bombing." But they did succeed in creating an aura of invincibility around Mr. Vajpayee, the BJP and the NDA.

The BJP's artificial rain-makers were matched, though unevenly, by the Congress' own brand of drizzle-makers. Led by Jairam Ramesh, Salman Khurshid, Vishwajit Pratap Singh and a clutch of recent Jawaharlal Nehru University graduates, these drizzle-makers kept the Congress flag aflutter.

Operating out a modest flat at 99, South Avenue, these under-staffed and under-financed drizzle-makers, conserved their resources and energies, built up a low-key campaign and hoped that the BJP's rain-makers would over-sell their product, thereby producing a fatigue in the voter's mind. Their nuanced campaign shifted the focus away from Sonia Gandhi (especially her foreign origin) and instead sought to highlight the Congress as the party of the common man.

If the battle turned out to be a lot closer than anyone predicted at the start, the Congress' drizzle-makers have had a role. They succeeded in making the print and electronic media play fair and even-handed, thereby neutralising the built-in advantage the NDA had as the ruling regime. In the battle of bytes and opinions, the drizzle-makers were not found lagging too far behind. By the middle of the campaign, they had managed to create a semblance of a battle well fought.

— H.K.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Opinion

News: Front Page | National | Tamil Nadu | Andhra Pradesh | Karnataka | Kerala | New Delhi | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Updates: Breaking News |

Stories in this Section

• The electoral battle that was
• The generals and their commanders
• Autonomous players
• Rain-makers and drizzle-makers
• Daunting agenda for new rulers
• Rot in apolitical armed forces

Copyright © 2004, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu